


the story of tonight

by satanthebeaglepuppy (saradathesalad)



Series: history has its eyes on you [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: A lot - Freeform, Gen, I just want them to be happy, I like sai, Sai is a bit OOC because he's younger and he actually kind of understands emotions a little, Sketchy plot premise, naruto is bad at naming, small emotionally stunted children, so i did this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 19:22:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12539364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saradathesalad/pseuds/satanthebeaglepuppy
Summary: Naruto and Sai meet as children. A small change, but a far-reaching one, as far as the universe is concerned.





	the story of tonight

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from Lin-Manuel Miranda's 'Hamilton' 'The Story of Tonight'.

It had been an accident, he hadn’t meant to lose his way, but it was dark and he had gotten distracted by the children playing in the playground, and had lost sight of his leader. He, unfortunately, had no idea how to get back to the base, he had never needed to learn as he was always with someone who knew the way. 

He wandered around the streets, hoping to catch sight of something familiar, or find someone he recognised. He was glad it was dark, so there was few people out, and those that were didn’t seem to care about a small child wandering around the streets at night. He finally gave it up as a lost cause, and decided to go to sleep in an alleyway. 

He’d slept in worse places.

He turned into a fairly small alleyway, sure there was no-one else in it, and immediately saw a lump of black and white that was definitely human and alive. The lump was sobbing, curled up at the end of the alley, against the wall. It was a short alley, he observed. He was wondered if he should approach the sobbing lump when it noticed him.

The lump stood up on shaky legs to reveal a beaten-up child who looked around his age. He thought the lump-child was male, but he couldn’t properly tell in the dark. The maybe-male child had blonde hair, and was not in a good shape.

“Who are you?” the child asked shakily, definitely male from the pitch of his voice, he noted.

“I have no name,” he replied, monotonously.

The boy narrowed his eyes in suspicion. He didn’t look like he should be standing, didn’t look like he should be doing much of anything besides sobbing in pain, but he was anyway. He wondered what had happened to the boy to put him into such a state. 

“Are you just saying that so that when you beat me up I can’t say anything without sounding stupid? ‘Cause you don’t need to do that, nobody ever believes me anyway, ‘cause I heal too fast for anyone to see the evidence,” the boy said defiantly.

He stared at the boy curiously, looking in particular at his wounds. They did seem smaller than when the boy had first stood up, but why would the boy think that he was going to beat him up? ‘Why were Konoha citizens beating up a small child for no apparent reason?’ he wondered. It didn’t make sense, so he disregarded it for now.

“I really don’t have a name, and I’m not going to beat you up. I was just looking for a place to sleep for the night because I can’t find my way home. And why would I want to beat you up? You’re just a boy my age,” he said blandly.

The boy stared at him, still guarded, but more curious now. He wondered what the boy was thinking. Probably wondering how he had gotten lost, and why his first thought was to sleep in an alley.

“I’m Naruto,” the boy said, “And you could stay with me for the night, if you’d like? I have my own apartment.”

He observed the boy- Naruto- and wondered why he was offering his apartment to a stranger that, just a few moments ago, he’d thought was going to beat him up. And wouldn’t his parents be angry he’d brought home someone he’d found in an alley? He decided to voice his thoughts.

“What about your parents?” he asked, “Won’t they be angry you brought as complete stranger home?”

“Don’t have parents,” Naruto said, “I live by myself. Jiji gives me money every month and pays for my apartment.”

He wondered who Naruto’s ‘Jiji’ was, and why he wasn’t raising the orphan. He thought over Naruto’s offer, and decided it would be a good idea to accept. After all, the boy seemed lonely and unsafe, if his physical state was anything to go by.

“Okay then,” he said.

Naruto blinked, he seemed hopeful, but also unsure. 

“You mean you’ll stay at my place tonight?” Naruto asked hesitantly.

“Yes,” he replied, “Lead the way.” 

Naruto nodded and started walking. He walked past him and out of the alley, and he followed. Naruto walked forwards, avoiding people as best he could, and glancing behind at him every few minutes to make sure that he was there. It was if he couldn’t believe somebody might want to stay with him rather than sleep in an alley.

He wondered why anyone would beat up Naruto, he seemed really nice, and he was just a child, around 6 or 7, like him. Naruto seemed to be taking as many alleyways as possible to get to his home, and they were on the edge of the ‘bad’ part of Konoha when Naruto told him they’d arrived at his place. 

The duo entered the apartment block and ascended the stairs until they reached a door, full of half-scrubbed off graffiti, saying various things along the lines of ‘monster’ and ‘demon’. He wondered, once more, what Naruto had done to deserve such treatment. 

Naruto unlocked and opened the door, revealing a messy small one-room apartment with a single bed, and lots of ramen cups in the overflowing bin. The place, while messy and in a state of disarray, seemed more comfortable than his room at Root’s base, and he felt at home for a moment.

“Sorry about the mess,” Naruto said, “But when I take my trash bags down to the big bin in the alley, people throw stuff at me, and sometimes shove me into the bin.”

“It’s fine,” he said. He looked at Naruto, once more observing him to see why people would treat him so badly, before finally giving in to his curiosity. “Why do people treat you so badly?” he asked.

Naruto looked extremely sad for a moment, before saying, “I don’t know.” He then gestured towards his bed. “You can sleep here.”

“Where will you sleep then?” he asked.

“On the floor,” Naruto replied, “I’ve slept on worse.”

He was baffled once more at the fact that people would beat up this small child who was so kind as to let a complete stranger into his house and let him sleep on his only bed, rather than letting that stranger sleep in an alley. He felt, for the first time in a long time, anger. He had just met Naruto, and yet, for some inexplicable reason, he wanted to protect him and make sure that nobody ever hurt him again.

But he could not do that, he had to return to Root in the morning, and all he could do for Naruto was maybe see him sometimes, and even that was not really much of an option. 

“Thank you, Naruto.”

“Yeah, yeah. You gonna tell me your name now or what?” Naruto asked, seemingly flustered at his words.

“I’ve said twice now that I don’t have one.”

“But everybody has a name!”

“Not me.”

“Hmph. Fine. If you don’t want to tell me, then I’ll make one for you!” Naruto exclaimed, pointing a finger at him.

He looked at Naruto curiously, wondering what he would come up with. 

“How about S?” Naruto asked.

“S? That is not a name, that is a letter,” he replied.

“Yeah, but I shouldn’t name you, you should name yourself, or be named by a parent, so I’ll just call you S until you get a name!” Naruto explained.

He, just dubbed ‘S’ by Naruto, nodded. The closest thing he had to a parent was Danzo-sama, and he was unlikely to name him as he was the one who had forbidden names, and he wasn’t about to break Danzo-sama’s rules and give himself a name.

“Okay. Thank you, Naruto,” he said. And he was thankful, Naruto’s ‘name’ had given him a personal attachment to Naruto, and his speech about names made it seem like he wanted to see him again. He would try his best to show up when he could.

Naruto yawned and said, “I think we should go to bed now. It’s getting really late, and I need to go to the academy tomorrow.”

“Okay,” he said, and made his way over to the single bed, and climbed in under the covers. He turned to see what Naruto was doing, and he was facing towards him lying on the ground, looking extremely uncomfortable. He suddenly felt extremely guilty, and wondered if both of them could fit on the bed.

“Do you want to share the bed?” he asked Naruto.

Naruto raised his head and stared at him. “Really?” he asked, “You wouldn’t mind sharing a bed with me?”

He shook his head and Naruto got up and approached the bed slowly, as if scared of scaring him off. He reached the bed and hesitantly put his hand on the blanket. He glanced at him, as if expecting this to be a cruel joke. When he saw nothing but curiosity and mild impatience, he lifted the blanket up and crawled in next to him.

“‘Night,” Naruto said, nestling into him.

“Good night, Naruto,” he said.

The two of them fell asleep. When Naruto woke up in the morning, it would be to an empty but still-warm bed, and a note on his table that read ‘I apologize for not waiting for you to wake up, but I have urgent matters to attend to. See you soon.  
-S’

Naruto’s smile was the widest smile he’d ever done, he was so happy. He’d made a friend, and S said he’d see him soon. He hoped it wasn’t just a prank, but the previous night S has seemed to like him.

Meanwhile, ‘S’ was being lectured about paying attention to his surroundings and where his companions were. When he was finally allowed to leave, he made his way back to his room, and when he reached it, he smiled, a big genuine smile. He had made a friend, and that made any lecture worth it.

Unknown to the two boys, their early meeting had been a small stone that created large ripples, the effects would only be seen in a few years, but it was enough.

Enough to set the universe on a different path.

**Author's Note:**

> Could continue this if people want me to? 
> 
> Follow me on tumblr at https://sasukes-hair-official.tumblr.com/


End file.
